Top 10 Carol and Daryl moments on The Walking Dead

5. Daryl Burns The Mother And Child Walkers For Carol

From season 5 episode 6: “Consumed”

“Consumed” was really a Carol and Daryl bottle episode and there were several fantastic Caryl moments in that episode. One of the most poignant was when Daryl burned the bodies of the mother and child walkers while Carol slept so that she didn’t have to see it. It was another act of service done to spare her pain, which is one of the defining undercurrents of their relationship.

In this episode both of them opened up a lot to each other. Carol leads Daryl to a battered women’s shelter when they are searching for somewhere to spend the night in Atlanta as they are on the trail of the car that took Beth.

Carol tells Daryl she knows a place and takes him the shelter. Carol seems very familiar with the maze like building and Daryl asks her if she used to work there. She tells him no, that she and Sophia stayed there when they ran from the abusive Ed.

Carol Is In A Dark State

Carol is clearly emotional and upset over being there. No doubt she was thinking of Sophia, and her life with Ed, and how she ended up in the situation she’s in. While they are exploring the shelter and looking for someplace to hunker down for the night they find a woman and child, both walkers.

The parallels between Carol and Sophia and the woman and child walkers are obvious and heartbreaking. Daryl tells her she doesn’t have to kill them, that he can do it and it doesn’t have to be her because it’s obviously distressing her. When she finally sleeps early in the morning he takes the bodies outside and burns them rather than just killing them and leaving them.

They stand together and watch the bodies burn, both lost in their own thoughts but clearly so connected in their love of and service towards each other. They don’t even need to talk. The silence between them speaks volumes in this scene.